ln view of the advisory issued by the Government cautioning against mass gathering to avoid the spread Of Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and the discussions in the Full Court Meeting held on 20.03.2020, the following interim arrangements are made for regulating the Court Proceedings in all the Courts in the High Court, until further orders:
1. Filing of all papers in the Filing Section of the Registry will be permitted only up to 12.30 p.m.. on all filing days;
2. Only very urgent admission matters will be posted before the Court. Counsel who desire to bring up any fresh admission matter before the Courts, should file a memo along with the admission file, stating specific reasons as to why the consideration Of the matter cannot be deferred till the reopening Of the Court after the Mid-Summer vacation-2020. The Registrar (Judicial) shall, after examining these requests, send only matters which are very urgent before the Court. The Counsel who are aggrieved by the decision Of the Registrar(Judicial) shall obtain prior permission from the Court for posting the case;
3. No petition other than petition for extension of stay/interim order will be posted before the Court. If anyone requires any urgent petition to be posted before the Court, the same can be done only with the prior permission of the Court;
4. Prior permission in respect Of all matters (Single Judge & Division Bench) as required in Sl. No. 2 & 3 above will be issued only by the Division Bench and that too in extremely urgent cases only. In matters relating to Single Judge also, mentioning of urgent matters for prior permission will be granted only in the Division Bench dealing with the subject. No mentioning for prior permission will be permitted before the Single Judge;
5. All petitions in which the stay/interim order expires on or before the reopening of the Court (18.05.2020), will be posted in Court concerned as per the usual procedure. No representation is required for extension of stay/interim orders. Stay/interim order will be extended till the reopening Of the Court and the cases will be posted in the reopening week;
6. No case will be listed normally for hearing in the Courts. No weekly hearing or daily hearing/disposal list will be published. In case Of extreme urgency for hearing, the memo requesting for hearing duly consented by Counsel for all parties in the case shall be filed and the same will be placed before the Honourable Judge concerned and the cases will be posted for hearing as per the orders of the Honourable Judge;
7. In order to reduce the large gathering in the Admission Courts, more number Of Courts will take up admission matters in writs and criminal jurisdiction;
8. In order to avoid the crowding of Advocates/Clerks in the Judicial Sections, the following arrangements will be made:
a) About half the number of Filing Scrutiny Officers will be shifted to a new location near to the present Filing Section, to the maximum extent possible;
b) Help Desk will be provided jn the entrance Of the Copying Section, Court Officers’ Section & Data Entry Section and all papers/query be furnished by the Counsel/Clerks at the Help Desk. Entry inside these Sections will be permitted only in extremely urgent cases and that too when services could not be provided from the Help Desk;
9. The interns/trainees are advised to abstain from attending Courts/Chambers;
10. Staff will be permitted to abstain from attending office on rotation basis. Guidelines/Procedure for regulating the presence of staff jn office will be issued by the Registrar General, after assessing the requirements and taking into consideration government orders in this regard.
Court shall remain closed in 21-03-2020 and 28-03-2020.
High Court of Kerala
[Notice dt. 20-03-2020]
